Thursday, November 5, 2009

Being Protestors

Today Michelle Bachmann held a rally on Capital Hill with quite a few Republican leaders, among these was the minority leader, John Boehner, who addressed the raucous crowd. Now, I am a believer in non-violent protest. But here was Bachmann calling for a "revolution," essentially an overthrow of the government. Here are some of the despicable signs held at the rally made by those whom Bachmann is urging to revolt:







Watching the video footage and signs of the protesters, I am also compelled to ask: Where are the black, brown and Asian people?

8 comments:

mrs.missalaineus said...

there is a fine line between being a protester and being an asshole.

me thinks the beige people (thanks ms. moon) have the market cornered on this one.

personally, i dont know if this proposed plan is the best plan, but it's better then the NO PLAN we have currently.

change has to start somewhere.

xxalainaxx

Judith Ellis said...

alaina - I laughed aloud reading your opening statement and agree with you about the plan. The really sad thing is that Republican Party seems to be in line with these wingnuts sponsored by corporate America who are screaming essentially about government and corporate America. Have these leaders forgotten that they are a part of the government?

Perhaps some speeches and words from the crowd bordered on treason, using the language of past presidential leaders justified such statements I guess. But just because such also held slaves doesn’t justifiably give us to right to do so also. Leaders should be much more responsible and wise in their rhetoric. But, of course, freedom of speech which

I am a strong proponent of free speech which allows quite a lot of lead way for such expressions that border on treason. How irresponsible of these leaders! The sad thing for me is the Republican Party’s dissolution into such madness where the moderate voices are crowded out and talk show hosts like Limbaugh and vice-presidential candidates and former governors like Palin essentially lead this Party. This is extraordinary to witness.

Corrie Howe said...

I don't like it and I don't understand it when people have to be nasty to get their point across. Do they think it earns them a hearing? I know it is trite, but I often think of the expression "What Would Jesus Do?" And frankly, I can't see him doing a lot of the things those claiming to be his followers do.

Judith Ellis said...

Regarding being heard, the media is partially to blame for this. Wingnuts do strange things for their five minutes of fame and are covered by the media as relevant news. It's all about what is covered and the weight given to coverage. Today, everything's news with the same import whether it's the Balloon Boy or the Afghanistan war.

zorro said...

I don't get it. Obama has been president for less than one year. All the problems he has were created by and then handed to him by the Republicans.
Then the Republicans have the nerve to protest against what the current president wants to do for the American people - give them a decent health care system.
Then the Republicans campare this protest to the protests against the Bush/Cheney war started under false pretense. How are they in any way the same? There is very little logic here and that is what is so unsettling to me.

Judith Ellis said...

Zorro - I'm largely in agreement with you. I also recently found the speech on youtube today where President Reagan declared that "government is the problem." I wonder if those who so agreed with this statement will now say that "Wall Street is the problem." I haven't heard that. In fact, wasn't Reagan president during the S&L scandal? Didn't his deregulation efforts bring about this scandal which totaled some $150 billion the largest in history to that point? To think that the current bailout was over $750 billion is extraordinary. It is the hypocrisy that so bothers me, not whether one is of one political party or the other. Another very disturbing thing is when President Obama took office we were losing 750,000 jobs a month. When the jobs report came out today we lost 150,000. By my math that's an improvement, even though some nearly 16 million Americans are without work. We have to do something to stimulate growth, both the public and private sector. From what I've read the bulk of the stimulus has not been dispersed. It's funny that we dispersed the money to the banks in record time and also it's funny that Harry Reid was talking about not having a bill on the President's desk until next year. They do whatever that want when they want. This has to change.

zorro said...

I've come to the conclution that President Reagan is the problem. The hate we see in the protest was what he used to get the middle class to vote against thier own interests. In the early sixties, he was a paid spokesman for the AMA (who now support health care reform). He spoke out against Medicare calling it socialism and a treat to our freedom. In 1946, the idea of tieing socialism to health care was dreamt up by an advertising firm hired by the AMA. Sarah Palin used part of one Reagans anti-medicare speaches last year on the campagign trail. She left out the parts that mentioned medicare.
I can't say I have a problem with the bank bailout - I've read too many opinions of people I respect who say we had no choice. But I have no idea why we don't use government spending to help stimulate the economy. Distrust of government is exactly what the Repulicans want - much like criminals would be very happy if they could get the public to distrust the police.

Judith Ellis said...

That's a very funny opening line, Zorro. There is definitely truth there too. Regarding the bank bailout, if we needed to do it, I think that the government did not work in the best interest of the people. (I'm for local banks and credit unions.) Wall Street banks created an incredible spread with a very low interest rate by not doing much and also resuming their derivative trading that brought on the financial crisis. I have friends that are in the industry that I trust. If Treasury would have better worked on our behalf, we would be able to pay for health care by not increasing the deficit. From what I gather, President Obama is insisting that this health care bill be deficit neurtal. Good luck with that. Hopefully, it's possible.